A conventional stringed instrument is typically constructed in such a manner that the neck of the instrument is permanently attached to the body. For example, some guitars have integral necks and others have necks that are bolted onto the body of the guitar as a single piece. Although such bolt-on necks are theoretically detachable, due to the critical alignment requirements between the neck of a guitar and the body, as well as the time required to loosen both the strings and the bolts, these "bolt-on" guitar necks are for all practical purposes permanently attached.
Thus, due to the fixed presence of the neck, the length of conventional guitars presents a major problem with respect to transportation and storage. Also, the volumetric bulk of a conventional guitar additionally causes great difficulties, particularly with regard to commercial carriers such as airlines. Until now, there have been only two practical ways to transport guitars by commercial transportation. One way was to hand carry the guitar aboard the vehicle and gamble on having sufficient storage space. The alternative has previously been to utilize a massive reinforced shipping case that provides sufficient protection from the rough handling checked baggage typically receives. For the typical traveler neither of the above described options is entirely satisfactory. Moreover, in addition to the bulk and the resulting extra luggage, many travelers object to the "appearance" presented by a traveler carrying a guitar aboard a commercial carrier.
Although there are several commercially produced "travel guitars" currently available, these are merely slightly scaled-down versions of full size guitars. Scaled-down prior art travel guitars are still relatively large and are almost as inconvenient to transport as regular full-size guitars.
It has been proposed in the past to design a guitar so as to be collapsible, to a configuration that is smaller in size, in order to make it easier to transport and more convenient to store. One approach has been to construct the guitar with a foldable neck or fingerboard portion. A major disadvantage with such guitars is that folding in order to collapse the guitar usually requires that the guitar be completely re-tuned when erected. For example, a representative prior art embodiment is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,211, to Jorgensen, hereby expressly incorporated by reference. The Jorgensen design utilizes a hinged arrangement with a shaped recess in the back of the instrument into which the neck swings when it is folded into the collapsed position. Although folding the Jorgensen neck does result in a more compact overall size, the strings of the Jorgensen guitar must be completely disconnected prior to folding. Further, the bridge of the Jorgensen guitar must be detached from the body of the guitar for storage purposes. Furthermore, to maintain the desirable full scale-length fret board (of from 24 to 251/2 inches), the Jorgensen guitar still requires a relatively long storage space even in the folded configuration because the neck is folded and stowed parallel to its deployed axis.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,093, to Field, hereby expressly incorporated by reference, also attempts to reduce the size of a guitar by folding the neck. The Field guitar employs a complex system of gears and rollers so that the tension of the strings can be relaxed in order to permit the neck to be folded. Additionally, the Field guitar employs a spring-loaded pin for the purpose of locking the neck in an extended position when the instrument is to be played. A significant disadvantage with the Field guitar is that the mechanical complexity of its precision linkages adds to the cost of manufacturing. Thus, the Field guitar is substantially more expensive than a fixed neck guitar of comparable musical quality. Further, the functional reliability of the guitar is lowered by both the complexity of the mechanism itself as well as the resulting weakening of the body caused by mounting the mechanism. Furthermore, the presence of this complicated mechanism adversely affects the tonal characteristics of the instrument. As with the Jorgensen guitar, the Field guitar still requires a relatively long storage space because, although the neck is folded, it is stowed parallel to its deployed axis. Thus, the above discussed prior art folding guitars do not provide the ultimate compact travel guitar greatly desired by guitar owners.
Another type of prior art folding guitar includes radially collapsible body sections. An example of such a prior art guitar is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,882, to Shaw, hereby expressly incorporated by reference. The Shaw guitar has a main body to which laterally moveable wing-like sections are connected. These wing sections are provided with expander mechanisms which include a threaded stem projecting through one wall in order to allow the musician to manually expand the wings into their playing position. In addition, the Shaw guitar also has a neck portion which is folded by means of a hinge on the top of the instrument body. However, although folding the Shaw guitar does reduce its length, the front-to-back thickness of the Shaw guitar is actually increased by folding the neck because the radially collapsing wings preclude the presence of a recess in the back of the guitar into which the neck could swing. As with the Jorgensen and Field guitars, a relatively long storage space is still needed because the Shaw neck is also folded and stowed parallel to its deployed axis, albeit against the front of the body. Again, a major disadvantage with such guitars is that folding the neck in order to collapse the guitar requires that the guitar be re-tuned when erected. Another disadvantage with such laterally collapsible wing section prior art guitars is that they are limited to bodies of a particular shape (i.e., the wings must be generally triangular in form so that the guitar is collapsible). This design constraint severely limits the choice of body styles and designs. In addition, the complex mechanical mechanisms inherent to such radially collapsible wings make the guitar more expensive, tend to adversely affect the tonal characteristics of the instrument and lower the functional reliability of the instrument.
Still other prior art guitars are composed of separate sections or parts which may be joined together in a modular manner to yield a musical instrument in unitary form. An example of such a prior art guitar is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,683, to Nulman, hereby expressly incorporated by reference. The Nulman guitar includes two portions, a neck with minor body portion and a major body section. The major body section has a recess, or socket, which receives the minor body portion to which the neck is connected. When assembled, the upper surfaces of the main body and the fingerboard define substantially parallel planes. However, such prior art guitars provide only a limited degree of reduced dimensional size, are difficult to assemble, requires special tools and a certain amount of manual dexterity. Design flexibility is again severely limited.